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Readout of this week’s Trans-Pacific Partnership discussions in Washington, DC

On Saturday, September 21, 2013, chief negotiators for the 12 Trans-Pacific Partnership countries – Australia, Brunei Darussalam, Canada, Chile, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, New Zealand, Peru, Singapore, the United States, and Vietnam – concluded four days of meetings in Washington, DC, having worked this week toward solutions and next steps on a range of issues under negotiation in the trade agreement talks.

In some TPP chapters -- including customs, telecommunications, sanitary and phytosanitary issues, technical barriers to trade, cross border services, and labor – progress toward conclusion was made on many issues and the 12 countries discussed how best to resolve other issues. Chief negotiators also discussed approaches for resolving challenges on e-commerce and legal and institutional issues. In addition, they met with the negotiating groups covering market access for goods and government procurement, which also convened this week to advance ambitious packages on goods, including industrial goods, agricultural products, and textiles, as well as government procurement. The U.S. also met with a number of other countries on the issue of state-owned enterprises.

The chief negotiators also discussed plans for the TPP Ministers’ and Leaders’ meetings that will take place on the margins of the APEC meetings in Bali, Indonesia, in early October. U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman and the other 11 TPP trade ministers will use their Bali meeting to discuss pathways forward on remaining issues and plans for concluding the negotiation. In Bali, they will offer a status report on the negotiations to President Obama and the other TPP Leaders, who have called on negotiators to complete the agreement this year.

Various Trans-Pacific Partnership discussions will continue into this coming week in Washington, including on investment, financial services and environment. Groups on intellectual property and rules of origin will be meeting intersessionally in Mexico and Canada, respectively.